Highly Automated Driving: Transitions of control authority using Haptic Shared Control

The arrival of highly automated vehicles introduces a new interaction between the vehicle and driver. System limitations during highly automated driving require the driver to be ready to take back control at request.<br/>Previous studies on the take-over process concluded that the driver requires a transition period to stabilize vehicle control...

Instrumentation of a Skeleton Sled: Novel Tactile Steering Force Sensors

The purpose of this project is to design and develop a set of force sensors to measure steering forces applied by an athlete down the ice track. Currently, there is not enough information about instrumentation in skeleton, and to maintain competitive advantages, most of the research remains private and unpublished. Athletes use their shoulders...

A BIO-INSPIRED FINGERTIP: 3D Printed Surface Patterns and Their Role in Surface Friction: An Experimental Study

In the field of prostheses, significant developments have been accomplished so far in low-cost prosthetic limbs using 3D printing technology. However, when it comes to prosthetic hands, 3D printed prosthetic hands are still limited in their grasping ability, such as the adaptability to the shape of an object and a sufficient pinch force level...

Determining Fatigue through Real-Time Sweat Analysis

At present, commercially available wearable sensors are only capable of tracking an individual’s physical activities and vital signs (such as heart rate). However, these devices fail to provide insight into fatigue itself. Fatigue is a broad term with many meanings. Fatigue in this paper refers to physiological changes where the muscle becomes...

Eliciting user engagement with a social robot: Drawing attention techniques for Pepper

The elicitation of user engagement is one of the current challenges of human-robot interaction, alongside with the identification of appropriate metrics to evaluate users' experience. Several studies focused on strategies aimed at maintaining engagement throughout an interaction, but limited research has been done on how to initiate it by...

Design and evaluation of a sit-snowboard for advanced users, focusing on comfort and control

A sit-snowboard is a weight supporting mechanism that allows people with lower extremity impairments to perform the sport of snowboarding. Comfort and control of the Twinrider (the only sit-snowboard on the market) are insufficient for advanced riders who reach higher speeds and ride more bumpy slopes. The goal of this study...

Simple Upper Limb Prosthesis with External Power Support for Cineplastic Control

The work presented in the thesis was motivated by the history of cineplasty and aims to create a supportive system for the body powered upper limb prostheses. A mechanical signal (pulling) from a cineplastic site or a harness system (e.g. shoulder harness) is used to control a prosthetic device. These signals are often too weak to comfortably...

The Hybrid Finger: Combining Nature with Technology into a 3D Printed Finger for a Hand Prosthesis with Minimized Assembly

Access to prosthetics is very limited to many potential<br/>users, while the need is high. There are two main reasons<br/>for this that both are related to the production of prosthetics: the lack of skilled people and high costs. Minimized<br/>assembly production using 3D printing could be a solution: no training is required, assembly takes only...

Design of a maternal phantom model: For trauma measurement and experimental purposes

The goal of this study was to design a maternal phantom model specialized for experiments in which the stresses in the amniotic sac can be determined during fetoscopic procedures. These stresses caused by surgical procedures are believed to be the leading cause of post surgical pre-birth. Measuring these stresses indicates the quality of...

Simulating the operational workspace performances of fetoscopic laser photocoagulation instruments in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome gestations: A preliminary empirical study

The twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome is a lethal hemodynamic imbalance between identical fetal twins as a result of vascular anastomoses in the monochorionic plate. With a fetoscopic laser photocoagulation the communicating vessels are interrupted, eliminating the inter-twin blood exchange. Since the first instruments were straight and rigid,...

3D printing of patient specific bioresorbable cardiovascular stents

Cardiovascular diseases, in particular atherosclerosis, is currently the leading cause of death worldwide with increasing numbers due to an aging population. Recently, the first bioresorbable stent (BRS), Absorb GT1 (Abbott, USA) was approved by the FDA, consequently sparking enthusiasm in BRSs and degradable polymeric biomaterials. Polymeric...